Drink and Laugh Your Way Through Dallas Observer's Comedy Crawl

If you go to a comedy club with the intention of getting drunk or even just enjoying a stiff drink, you have poor priorities in life. Going to a comedy club for drinks is like buying an airline ticket to score some peanuts. Any lightly seasoned alcoholic will tell you that comedy clubs are the WORST place known to mankind to get a drink. The fact that most of them order you to buy a minimum number of drinks after you've already bought a ticket to be in their club should be the first sign. And if you even completely ignore the two-drink minimum and the prices on the menu that already seem like some kind of sick joke, you'll learn a very valuable lesson when you offer to pick up the check.

So if you've got an unquenchable thirst for an adult beverage and an itch to see some of Dallas' top comedians, we've got a better solution that's more economical when it comes to who takes to the stage and what goes through your liver. It's the return of the Dallas Observer's annual Comedy Crawl Thursday.

The evening consists of two great reasons to stand outside t in the insane Texas heat on a work or school night: three legendary Dallas bars with three legendary local comics. It starts in Deep Ellum at 8 p.m. at Three Links on Elm Street, then moves to the Twilight Lounge at 9 p.m. and finally to Club Dada at 10 p.m. 

As you're hoisting a drink or seven during the crawl, you'll hear the finely honed material of three of Dallas' greatest and most popular comedians including Aaron Aryanpur, Paul Varghese and Dave Little. That's the beauty of a comedy themed pub crawl. No matter how much you drink, you're guaranteed to laugh. 

Aaron Aryanpur became one of Dallas' first, true road comics by honing his material back when the Addison Improv and Hyena's were the only technical comedy club in town. The Texas native won 2012's Funniest Comic in Texas contest after becoming a coast to coast comic with a very busy tour schedule. He's also scored time on the nation airwaves with a spot on the Fox comic showcase Laughs hosted by Steve Hofstetter, a chance he almost missed thanks to a smoking airplane engine that left him stranded in an airport when he was supposed to be on the stage. He also recently recorded his first live album for Stand Up! Records. 
Aryanpur loves to talk about his life, his family and his native state but he doesn't need to throw on a rodeo shirt or a thick, fake accent to show you its true absurdities. His sharp eye and fast delivery knows how to cut down the everyday things that seem normal but actually don't make a lick of sense when he lays out the evidence like a charming attorney who caught you in a bald-faced lie and can still charm a smile right out of you. 

Paul Varghese also started slinging jokes in the Dallas' comedy community when comics had to beg coffee shop owners to let them do open mics in an occupied corner and bring their own microphones to their sets. He won the 2009 Funniest Comic in Dallas competition and quickly started scoring gigs across the country and even on TV on shows such as NBC's Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central's Live at Gotham and Showtime's Russell Peters Presents. Stand Up! Records also released his first live comedy album in 2013 called Paul & Oates.

This Garland native can turn pretty much anything that falls into his range of observation into some kind of joke. He has a ton of funny stories about growing up with his native Indian family deep in the heart of urban Texas but he also has some daft and clever ways of dissecting just about anything that's around him or on his mind like the sudden acceptance of flash mobs, the wasted talents of Sarah McLaughlin on abandoned pet PSAs and convertibles. 

Dave Little is more than just a local comedy institution. Dallas couldn't have a comedy scene without Dave Little. According to his website, he's been on stages since the 1980s and he often switches between his musical talent and comedic wit, sometimes combining the two in ways that are utterly unexpected and surprising. He's performed on just about every stage in town from the Addison Improv to the Kessler Theater and he recently appeared as a guest on Doug Benson's "Doug Loves Movies" podcast that recorded a live episode at Hyena's Comedy Nightclub. 

The musician and self-effacing comedian has one of the most unique personalities on any stage in the DFW area. He's adept at weaving words and jokes into curveballs that command an audience's attention so they don't miss any of the very clever jokes and bits that sometimes just rolls off the top of his head as he's performing his set. He also brings a unique attitude to his sets as someone who seems not to care whether you laugh or not but without pummeling his audience in the face to get their attention. He's like an experienced fisherman who knows how to throw out just the right amount of line to reel in some big laughs (if fishermen fished for laughs instead of fish). 
Join the Dallas Observer Comedy Crawl at any of the three stops in Deep Ellum: 8 p.m. at Three Links on Elm Street, 9 p.m. Twilight Lounge, 10 p.m. Club Dada.